House built in 1926 for copper baron Daniel C. Jackling. The house was designed by George Washington Smith, the creator of the look that typifies Santa Barbara and Montecito. Steve Jobs owns it and wants to tear it down; he says it was a dump when he bought it in 1984 and it's worse now.
� Photos courtesy of� Thalia Lubin, a preservationist who is on the Woodside History Committee.

House built in 1926 for copper baron Daniel C. Jackling. The house...

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House built in 1926 for copper baron Daniel C. Jackling. The house was designed by George Washington Smith, the creator of the look that typifies Santa Barbara and Montecito. Steve Jobs owns it and wants to tear it down; he says it was a dump when he bought it in 1984 and it's worse now.
� Photos courtesy of� Thalia Lubin, a preservationist who is on the Woodside History Committee.

2007-01-10 16:21:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Steve Jobs' attempt to tear down his historic but deteriorating mansion in the town of Woodside and build a smaller home on the wooded property ran into a brick wall in a state appeals court today.

Ruling in favor of a preservation group, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the computer magnate had failed to show that it was impractical to restore the 17,000-square-foot building and that the only alternative was to demolish it.

The Spanish Colonial Revival home, designed by noted architect George Washington Smith, was built for copper baron Daniel Jackling in 1925. It has 30 rooms, 14 bedrooms and 13½ bathrooms and sits on 6 acres of forested land.

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Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computers and Pixar, bought the home in 1984, lived in it for 10 years and then rented it, but it has been vacant and untended since 2000. His application for a demolition permit in 2001 was approved by the Woodside Town Council, which found that the mansion was a historic resource but agreed with Jobs that preserving it was economically unworkable.

A group called Uphold Our Heritage filed suit. Judge Marie Weiner of San Mateo County Superior Court blocked the demolition last January, finding a lack of evidence to support the Town Council's conclusion. The three-judge appeals court panel agreed with Weiner.

The court cited estimates by the town's Planning Commission staff that the house would cost $4.9 million to rehabilitate and another $4.1 million to add living quarters, office space and a fitness area. Jobs' estimate was higher, but he failed to provide any information about the cost of building his proposed new home on the site, the court said.

Without that information, "it is not possible to determine whether the cost of renovating the existing historic structure is reasonable or feasible," Justice Stuart Pollak said.

Although Jobs can't be forced to restore the mansion, Pollak said, the town can't allow him to tear down the historic structure as long as preservation remains a realistic alternative.